Sunday, March 02, 2014

Car Seat Blankies, Again


Working my way through the car seat blanket booklet has been (pick one) challenging, mind-numbing, an exercise in stupidity, a good way to replenish the baby gift stash.

Number 4 is shown at left. Lace Stitch. This is one of those patterns that I love to hate. It's unbalanced and biases, and even a good soak and dress helps only temporarily. I know that it will revert to parallelogram soon.

Close up of the pattern stitch (4 row pattern, stockinette on 3 rows, YO, K 2 tog on the 4th. I followed the pattern as written. If I do this one again, I will change up every other eyelet row so that the biasing is less severe.

In the meantime, this one is in the gift box along with booties to match.

Next up, Variation On the Theme. The beginning of another car seat blanket, this time in true cables that will be embellished.

I tried (really, I did) a tried and true spelled out version of this cable. After several trips to the virtual and real Frog Pond, I googled and found the cable charted.

Smooth sailing (as long as I don't run out of yarn)!

And now, in the category of I Stand Corrected: The Cascade Greenland behaved beautifully after it's soak and block! It's still sproingy, but is considerably more drapey and grew quite a lot. I am pleased. (But I still think it was the wrong yarn for the project.)

Yarn review: Valley Yarns' Valley Superwash (100% extra fine merino) which is Webs' (www.yarn.com) house brand is super soft and a real pleasure to work with. I bought it specifically to make baby garments in pink, ice blue, and spring leaf. It is perfect for that task.

And a bit on my back. Yes, I saw a doctor. No, it isn't my back. It's sciatica. It's painful. I have drugs. And exercises. And a sock full of hot rice. If it isn't better in 4 more days (or starting to get better), I will also have steroids.

And there is more snow in the forecast. I. Cannot. Take. Any. More. Winter. DONE!

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// posted by Ann @ 3/02/2014 07:09:00 AM 1 comments

Sunday, February 23, 2014

And #3 Is a FO!

Basket Weave pattern, Cascade Greenland yarn on size 7 needles

The third car seat blankie from the booklet reviewed earlier is now finished. This time I used the Basket Weave pattern and a new-to-me yarn.

Cascade Greenland is a washable wool and was clearly NOT the right yarn for this pattern. I muddled through and finished it, but it's Just Not Right. The twist of this yarn is very tight and it's incredibly sproingy (technical term). Though I had 2 ounces more than required, and should have had about 20 yards left after knitting the pattern to size, I found myself making this one a couple inches smaller than the pattern calls for. It was a nice yarn to work with, and I will probably buy more in the future, but it was the wrong yarn for this project.

I have not washed and blocked yet which might help the drape, but probably will have little effect on the size.

The booties shown are my go-to pattern (Morehouse Merino Knits) and match the last two car seat blankies. There is not enough of the Greenland left to do much more than trim a pair. I'll have to think about that.

Oh, and the color (which is pretty accurate on my screen) is called Lemon Yellow. Not even close.

In other news: I have done something to my back which makes standing up painful. Mind you, not sitting, not standing. Not walking. Not chopping ice or shoveling snow. Just getting from a sitting to a standing position. Twenty minutes of ice allows for 5 minutes of pain-reduced position shifting. Not fun. Yes, if it doesn't resolve (and quickly), I will be heading to the doctor.

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// posted by Ann @ 2/23/2014 10:36:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Closing In On the Finish Line


You've seen the snowman. He was featured here.

Now, he is joined by Christmas Ornament-Santa.

Valient effort. Sort of nasty looking.

Cotton yarn with some floofy crap that I got for a buck at the Tree. It really is very nasty to knit, but the texture is what I wanted.

I may throw the rest of it away.

(Caron "Bliss"--bad name for a bad product!)

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// posted by Ann @ 8/20/2009 08:16:00 PM 0 comments

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